"This was a great opportunity for us," Larry Rogers, general manager of retail marketing with Sinclair Marketing Inc., told the paper. "The future depends on how we do with this acquisition and what presents itself in the future."

Sinclair plans to keep the Fiesta Mart banner on the stores, along with its Sinclair-branded fuels produced at its Tulsa refinery, according to a Sinclair statement. Sinclair also hired 110 of the existing store-level staff, including managers, assistant managers and sales associates, to oversee day-to-day operations, according to the company. Financial details were not disclosed.

Individual warranty deeds filed with the Tulsa County Courthouse indicate sale prices ranged from $1.08 million to $577,000, according to the report. A call to Arkansas Valley Petroleum was not returned by presstime.

With the purchase, Sinclair's retail operation expands to 261 locations in Oklahoma, the newspaper reported. Last year, the company began a $1 billion expansion of its refinery here, according to the report.

"The Sinclair brand has been growing rapidly throughout the state of Oklahoma," Rogers told the paper. "This is in direct correlation to our refinery expansion."

As the refinery project is completed, Rogers expects to grow both organically and through acquisition, the report stated. Sinclair sells its own-brand gasoline at more than 2,600 stations in 21 states, according to the report.

In addition, Sinclair is bringing its iconic green dinosaur back to the region with the rebranding of several of its Tulsa area stations to its own banner, according to the report.

"We're replacing the Phillips, Shell and Valero brand with Sinclair Fuels," Rogers said. "We haven't had a strong brand presence in Tulsa for many years. I'm told 20 to 30 years."

Sinclair will begin a marketing campaign to celebrate the large-scale return of the green brontosaurus called "Dino," which has been featured at the company's logo since the 1930s, Rogers told the paper.

"You will see television advertising here in the next week or two," he said. "We have about 80 Sinclair-branded locations in and around the outskirts and rural areas."